R

Roblox

Runs a platform where users build and play games

Data Scientist PhD Intern

Summer 2027Posted on 10/8/2026
$66/hr
Internship
PhD
San Mateo, CA, USA
HybridOn-site Tuesday through Thursday; Monday and Friday are optional.
No H1B Sponsorship

About the job

Requirements
  • Possess or be pursuing a PhD in a quantitative field such as Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Economics, or Computational Social Science.
  • Have at least 1 year of experience in causal inference, machine learning, or experiment design through research or a prior internship.
  • Be proficient in one or more programming languages such as SQL, Python, or R.
  • Be proficient in big data query or processing languages and tools such as SQL, Hive, Spark, or Airflow.
  • Have a passion for applying scientific rigor to advance dynamic consumer products.
Responsibilities
  • Collaborate with data scientists and engineers to research and develop data analytics, causal inference, experiment design, and machine learning solutions for business and product innovations.
  • Conduct in-depth research to address complex data-related challenges.
  • Work on projects that impact products, services, and business strategy.
  • Apply work to expedite product innovations, including in-experience experiments, friend recommendations, and dynamic resource allocation for experience servers.
  • Present findings and recommendations to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience developing production solutions is a plus.
  • Experience with machine learning modeling.

About the company

Roblox runs an online platform where people play, chat, and hang out in 3D games built by its users rather than by the company itself. In 2025, Grow a Garden, a game a teenager made on Roblox, set the record for the most people playing one video game at the same time. Creators build games with Roblox Studio, a free design tool, and players join through the free Roblox app on phones, computers, game consoles, and VR headsets. Roblox makes money by selling Robux, a virtual currency players spend on avatar items and in-game extras, and it shares part of that spending with creators, who can exchange their Robux for real money. Roblox was founded in 2004 and is based in San Mateo, California.

Company Size

1,001-5,000

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

San Mateo, California

Founded

2004

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Adult spending is stronger: age-checked U.S. adults spend over 50% more than minors, per Roblox's June 2026 results.
  • Hiring continues despite the slump: Roblox listed 261 open roles in October 2026, including 22 for interns and new grads.
  • Cash cushions the downturn: Roblox held $6.1 billion in cash and investments in June 2026, six times its debt.

What critics are saying

  • Spending is turning down: Roblox expects bookings, what players spend, to drop 14% to 18% in the September 2026 quarter.
  • Stock grants have lost value: Roblox fell 44% through October 8, 2026, versus 18% for GTA maker Take-Two.
  • Child safety is a standing legal risk: 10 states and Los Angeles County had sued Roblox by July 2026.

What makes Roblox unique

  • Roblox runs its computing platform: over 150,000 servers in 25 regional data centers run most of its games.
  • Its users build the games and get paid: creators earned $1.5 billion in 2025, up 63% from 2024.
  • No hit dominates: Roblox's top 10 games drew 20% of play time in mid-2026, versus 30% three years earlier.

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Benefits

Benefits and Perks - The health and well-being of our employees and their families is our top priority. We offer robust and comprehensive programs with variety to best meet your needs.

Well-Being Benefits - With flexible time off and a bi-annual, company-wide spring/summer recharge, Roblox knows how to balance working hard with winding down.

Financial Benefits - Competitive compensation packages, 401(k) matching, and flexible share incentives that let you choose how to share in our success.

Health and Wellness - Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits, family planning resources, and 12 weeks off for all new parents.

Flexible Workplace - Our hybrid work schedule balances working onsite and working remotely. Enjoy daily lunch and an in-house fitness center when working from our San Mateo headquarters.

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

↑ 0%

1 year growth

↑ 0%

2 year growth

↓ -2%
Inven Global
Oct 6th, 2026
THE LOG: PC cafe playtime drops 18.8% in first week of October.

THE LOG: PC cafe playtime drops 18.8% in first week of October. Oct 5, 2026 THE LOG announced that total nationwide PC cafe playtime in the first week of October 2026 reached approximately 14.97 million hours, down 18.8% from the previous week. The average weekly operation rate recorded 15.2%. According to the weekly report compiled by Geto's PC cafe game statistics service THE LOG from September 28 to October 4, total usage time decreased 4.1% month-over-month and 13.1% year-over-year. PC cafe operation rates averaged 13.2% on weekdays and 20.3% on weekends. THE LOG explained that as PC cafe usage returned to typical levels following the end of the Chuseok holidays, playtime for major games all declined compared to the previous week. In the top 5, Valorant climbed one spot to rank 2nd. THE LOG analyzed that Patch 13.06, applied on September 22, helped Valorant maintain its upward trend in PC cafe market share. Roblox saw the smallest drop in playtime among the top 30 games, moving up one place to 8th overall. Its weekly market share reached 3.61%, entering the 3% range for the first time since tracking began. Having sustained an upward market share trend for five consecutive weeks since the fourth week of August, Roblox was also named Game of the Week. THE LOG noted that interest in Roblox has expanded recently, driven by social media, with usage increasing not only among teenagers - its core user base - but also across other age groups such as players in their 20s. Eternal Return, World of Warcraft, and Lineage also experienced rank changes during the week. This article was originally written in Korean and translated with the help of AI. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by its newsroom. [Read Original]

Yahoo Finance
Sep 30th, 2026
Roblox shares fall 70% from peak as Jefferies downgrades to $38 and court rejects child safety lawsuit dismissal

Roblox shares fell 8.1% over the past three weeks to around $42, now 70% below their 52-week high of $142. The decline followed a Jefferies downgrade to Underperform with a $38 target and a court ruling that refused to dismiss a child safety lawsuit filed by Los Angeles County. Jefferies argued the stock's earlier rally already priced in too much bookings growth. The firm expects a slower US and Canada recovery than investors anticipate. Days earlier, a judge ruled that Section 230 protections did not cover Roblox's safety practices, raising potential legal and compliance costs. Second-quarter bookings grew just 8%, whilst third-quarter guidance implies a 14% to 18% decline. Daily active users rose 10% to 123 million, suggesting engagement remains solid despite weaker spending per hour. Results are expected around 30 October.

TradeWins Publishing
Sep 29th, 2026
Sellers controlling this ticker.

Sellers controlling this ticker. Roblox (RBLX) came under heavy selling pressure Monday after Jefferies downgraded the stock from Hold to Underperform and set a $38 price target. The firm believes the stock's recent rally reflected overly optimistic expectations for bookings growth and warned that improving user growth and monetization in the U.S. and Canada could take longer - and cost more - than investors expect. Jefferies also lowered its bookings and EBITDA forecasts, pointing to continued spending on developers, infrastructure and other initiatives as a potential drag on margin expansion. The downgrade comes as Roblox continues to face legal and safety-related pressure surrounding protections for younger users, including litigation alleging inadequate safeguards against predators and inappropriate content. The chart has turned decidedly bearish, with RBLX dropping below its 8-, 21- and 55-day exponential moving averages. The -DI has moved above the +DI while ADX is above 28, showing strengthening downside momentum. RSI near 42 leaves room for additional weakness before reaching oversold territory, while the PPO has crossed below its signal line. With shares already falling sharply, traders may want to watch for continued confirmation or a weak rebound rather than chase the initial decline. Wishing you the best,

Insider Monkey
Sep 28th, 2026
Jefferies downgrades Roblox (RBLX) to Underperform on bookings growth risk.

Jefferies downgrades Roblox (RBLX) to Underperform on bookings growth risk. Jefferies cut Roblox to Underperform with a $38 target against a $46.44 close, arguing the 30% recovery from the post-earnings crash prices in bookings growth that won't arrive. Published September 28, 2026 at 3:28 pm EDT Roblox Corporation (NYSE:RBLX) was cut to Underperform from Hold at Jefferies on September 28, with the firm leaving its price target at $38. The shares closed Friday at $46.44, roughly 18% above where the call says they belong. Roblox lost about 27% of its value the day after second-quarter results landed, closing at $35.60 on July 31. It has climbed roughly 30% from that level since. Jefferies argues the recovery prices in a bookings trajectory the company is unlikely to deliver. Bookings arrive as cash long before they arrive as revenue: Roblox does not publish a meaningful earnings figure, so the argument has to happen somewhere else. It happens in bookings. Players buy Robux, the platform's virtual currency, and spend it inside experiences other people have built. Roblox banks that cash immediately and records it as bookings. Accounting revenue comes later, recognized across the estimated life of a paying user rather than at the moment of purchase. The lag is what makes bookings the useful number. Revenue on any given quarter's income statement partly reflects money collected a year or more earlier, so a slowdown in what players spend today will not show up in reported results for some time. Jefferies has aimed at exactly that gap. A downgrade built on bookings is a claim about what players are doing right now, which is the one thing the income statement is slowest to reveal. The audience is real even if the spending slows: Set against the call is a platform nobody has managed to copy. Roblox is among the largest places young people gather online, and assembling attention on that scale from a standing start has defeated better-funded competitors. Engagement is the genuinely scarce asset here, and it does not evaporate because one firm lowers a rating. Expectations have come down a long way as well. The shares have lost roughly two-thirds of their value over twelve months, down from a peak of $142. Anyone buying today pays far less for the same audience than they would have a year ago. Roblox is worth about $31 billion at Friday's close, which is a modest price for a platform of that reach if the spending holds up. The company has been widening its reach too, with plans to distribute standalone games beyond its own app and to court players older than the under-13 audience it was built on. What none of that supplies is a floor. With no profits to value the business against, every estimate rests on players spending more next year than this one. Jefferies is disputing that assumption directly, and it is the only assumption holding the price up. Conclusion: The disagreement here is unusually clean. Jefferies believes a 30% rally has priced in bookings growth that will not arrive, and has put a $38 target behind that view. The counter is that Roblox owns an audience competitors cannot buy, available at a price two-thirds below where it stood a year ago. Both sides accept the platform works. What they dispute is how much money flows through it next year. That makes the next bookings figure the point at which one of them is proved wrong, and the point worth waiting for before taking a side. Market sentiment: Roblox Corporation was held by 52 hedge funds with a combined stake value of about $4.8 billion at the end of Q2 2026 in the Insider Monkey database. This is down from 66 hedge fund holders in the previous quarter, although the value of those positions rose from around $4.1 billion.

Interactive One, LLC
Sep 25th, 2026
The Doux collaborated with Roblox to create 'my Salon Empire'

The Doux collaborated with Roblox to create 'my Salon Empire' The Doux & Roblox team up for 'my Salon Empire,' an interactive game for the beauty enthusiast. Hellobeautiful spoke to The Doux founder Maya Smith about her interactive game "My Salon Empire" with Roblox, today's salon culture and balancing it all. Published on September 25, 2026 It's a lazy Saturday in September and you're looking for something to do... build a salon. A Roblox salon. Maya Smith, founder of The Doux teamed up with Roblox to present a gaming experience for the beauty enthusiast. "My Salon Empire" is as entertaining as it is educational. Through the game, developed by Exclusive, players can welcome clients, conduct hair consultations, shampoo and style hair, hire staff, provide customer service and earn rewards to unlock new features. But the best feature, perhaps, is the ability to customize your avatar's hair with a bunch of textured styles. Hellobeautiful caught up with Maya Smith about finding success in the salon with her brand The Doux, the game and how it promotes haircare education. "The game is based on how you perform on those services," Maya explained in a candid chat. "If you move fast enough, you get rewarded." Rewards allow you to "unlock different hairstyles and different chairs, different areas of the salon." "You have to do your own POS system," she added. "You're checking out customers, you're using The Doux products. So if they want a twist out, our products are popping up." It's quite brilliant. In era of gaming and streaming, it meets a niche customer base. As someone who built a salon in real life, Maya knows the ins and outs of entrepreneurship. "When you get really good at it, you have the opportunity to grow and scale your salon. You can add another location. And because it's set in Atlanta, you can go outside and go to other salons and see what other players have built in their salon empires. So, really interactive, customizable game." The Doux Products The Doux was started in Germany where Maya's husband, and business partner, was stationed in the Air Force. Their family of 6 lived two hours away from Paris by train and they spent a lot of time there. It was inspired by the French word. Maya didn't know what it meant at first. "It's a French word for soft and sweet, but they also kind of use it informally, to say something is really cool. So, you know, it turned into this kind of play on words, like, hairdo." Maya and Brian's love story dates back to high school. "We're high school sweethearts," she says sweetly. "I've known him longer than I've been doing hair. That's a long time. There's no way that I would have been able to build the salon business the way that I did." As the only woman in the house with her husband and five boys she leans on them for their gaming experience. She credits Brian with being the creative. "Brian is also the gamer of the family," she shared. "I'm Andre 3000 and he's big boy." Salon Culture As a shop owner, Maya understands the dynamics of salon culture and the changing landscape for modern stylists. Maya believes what's missing these days in the salon is the apprenticeship program. Back in the day, "you started off as an assistant, you grew into this mentorship and apprenticeship program, which I still think is the best model." She continued, "I think now, all of the, the stylists are starting in suites. They get out of, of beauty school and there's just no mentorship." According to Maya, not all stylists are licensed cosmetologists. "There is still a lot of value to actually being a licensed stylist. There's so much that you learn that has nothing to do with hair and a community and a support that, you know, is cultivated during that time. I will always be an advocate for cosmetology school. I think what's so interesting even about, like, this game that we've created is showing people that there's, you know, there's the craft, but there's the business that no one ever talks about." Work Life Balance With five kids, a husband, successful business and growing empire, how does Maya balance it all? "No such thing as balance. Priority matters to us. You can have it all, but you can't have it all at the same time." Play "My Salon Empire," here. Related Tags